Anime Reviews: Hajime no Ippo

I stumbled upon this series quite be accident. I had run out of interesting things to watch, and decided to start acquiring the first couple of episodes from random series. I got them- and promptly forgot about them.

However I came home from work one day to find my room mate had been rummaging though the unwatched anime pile, and had started watching Hajime no Ippo, which means "The First Step". After he proclaimed it to be "good shit", I decided that I would make time to watch it.

This is not just good shit, in my opinion. This is exceptionally good shit. I've watched all 75 episodes in a little over 5 days. It baffles me to no end that a lot of the opinions on it I've seen were very, very bad.

Well maybe not- I think I know why. There are only a few attractive characters, and they don't show up till later. Sorry girls! Hajime no Ippo is about a boy becoming a man- A very standard shounen anime/manga theme. Makunouchi Ippo is a 17 year old high school student. He has good grades. He helps his mother with the family fishing business, which his father started before he passed away. He's really very ordinary- He's not good looking, and he's very shy. He is bullied almost constantly by a fellow student by the name of Umezawa. Despite the fact that helping with the fishing business has made him physically very strong, he has no self-confidence.

During a particularly vicious bullying session Ippo is 'rescued' by a pro boxer. At first glance, Takamura Mamoru is everything Ippo wishes he could be- unbeatably strong, and self confident. In that moment he passes out from the beating he took from the bullies. When he wakes up, he's been moved to the boxing gym that Takamura practices at, and his face has been bandaged. Ippo thanks Takamura profusely for helping him out, and Takamura scoffs at him. However the next thing he says nearly reduces poor Ippo to tears- that the only thing he hates more then seeing people bully those weaker then themselves, is when the weak people don't even try to fight back. Ippo picks up his uniform jacket and apologizes for the trouble and starts to leave. Takamura stops him-. Maybe he realizes that the poor kid doesn't know how to fight back back. He sits Ippo down and doodles a cartoon face of Umezawa, and tapes it to a sandbag. He tells Ippo to punch the picture, saying it will help him feel better.

Ippo gives the bag a half-hearted tap, and he gets yelled at for not doing it properly. He tries again with slightly better results. Ippo seems to be enjoying himself, so Takamura gives him a quick lesson on how to REALLY hit something- Step in farther, use his hips, and turn his shoulder in. Ippo follows his instructions, and sends the sandbag flying.

Naturally, Ippo is very impressed with himself, so impressed that he doesn't realize that he's split open all the skin on his knuckles. Mildly impressed as well, Takamura drags him off to bandage him up again. The others at the gym who witnessed the feat of strength are also impressed. Split knuckles are the mark of a hard puncher.

He goes home that day with a different view of life- the desire to become strong now glows in his head like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. He convinces Takamura of his sincerity after a lot of trouble, and he agrees to teach Ippo to box

He goes through very tough training, but passes his pro boxing test, and makes his debut. He has a string of wonderful wins, all by KO, only to suffer a crushing defeat at the most important moment. But he finds the strength to continue towards every boxer's goal- the title belt.

The thing I like about this series the best is Ippo, himself. Not his boxing- him. He's an incredibly honest hardworking boy who puts everything and everyone before himself, and somehow manages to make friends with other boxers who he has to fight! And when I say hardworking, I mean it- this boy will take repeated blows to the head, be unconscious, and yet retain his feet and keep fighting. Every match in this series has kept me on the edge of my seat, often times I find myself screaming "Get up, you bastard!" while shaking my monitor, or cheering along with the crowd, "Makuo-no-chi! Makou-no-chi!"

This series is not all about two sweaty men in shorts beating each other to a bloody pulp either. The humor of Hajime no Ippo is exceptionally crude. A great deal of it focuses on Ippo being exceptionally well endowed for a Japanese male- this comes to light in the boxing gym's shower room. Everyone has just finished their workouts, and Takamura, apparently proud of his nudity walks up to Ippo's shower stall and demands to know why there is a towel around his waist. He jerks the towel away saying something to the effect of "It's not the size, it's how you use it! No reason to be embarrassed!" only to find that Ippo's… *cough* a 'Heavyweight". Everyone in the showers is shocked, and Ippo swears he'll never take a shower at the same time as Takamura ever again. Also much to Ippo's humiliation on at the beginning of his debut match, Takamura cheers to the entire arena that there is no need to be afraid because "Your penis is Heavyweight class! The bigger one wins!" Ippo's expression is priceless. To add insult to injury at Ippo's victory party directly afterwards Takamura tells the girls at the bar all about it and then jerks Ippo's pants to his ankles. Poor kid. Worse still, much later on Ippo is in the hospital after a match and discovered that Takamura has gone so far as to write "Takamura was here" on his penis with permanent marker while he was unconscious. This kind of humor will not appeal to everyone- but I no longer wonder how boys act when there are no girls around.

As I said earlier, I can see why a lot of people, especially girls, won't give this series a chance. However, though he may not be good looking, Makuonochi Ippo will charm you, impress you, and make you laugh. That is, if he's given the chance.